How to nail your social media set up

Adding social to your company will see you grow your Google search rankings, provide a base and community for your customers to connect, create opportunities for conversion and allow you to bring your brand to life.

Eight in ten Australians use social media, which means it’s an ideal opportunity to connect with your customers. Social media will take up some of your (quite possibly) limited time but it’s well worth the outlay – and you don’t have to be everywhere at once. Actually, it’s better if you’re not. Instead, focus your energy and efforts on where and how you can create the biggest impact.

First, you need to identify which social platforms are the best fit for your business and there are five key questions you need to consider before locking that down.

1. Who are you?

What does your brand stand for and what are its products and values?

2. What do you want to say?

What's your strategy for your brand and how will social media help realise and support that?

3. What do you want to do?

Are you planning to use social as a platform to sell? Do you want to use it for brand awareness? Are you focused on building relationships?

4. Who do you want to connect with?

Identifying your audience will help you determine the best social media account (or accounts) to set up.

5. How often will you maintain your social presence?

This, too, will allow you to select the most suitable platform as some require ‘feeding’ more often than others. An abandoned or quiet social presence is worse than no presence. So once you kick off, prepare to continue.

Download our worksheet

Our social media worksheet will help you determine the most appropriate social media platforms for your business.

Will you primarily be showcasing products, running competition and spruiking sales? There's a perfect social media match for that!

The best time to post

The most popular times people check their social media is in the evening (57%) and first thing in the morning (also 57%). Nearly 50% of people also check social media during lunchtime, with a third of people checking their social channels over five times a day.

Consider your business strategy and brand story. Do you have a relevant and authentic time of day that you could and should create and share content? For example, a coffee company might have an early morning regular post and an afternoon pick me up that aligns with customer habits in relation to their brand. Check out your current insights online and in real life. Identifying when your customers will be more likely to interact with the platform and your business or product will make your messaging more relevant.

What does your customer want from you?

The 2017 Sensis Social Media Report revealed that 54% of customers using social media are interested in discounts (no surprises there!) and 48% are keen on giveaways. Interestingly, almost 64% of people said they are more likely to trust a brand if it positively interacts with customers on social media. Facebook even rates (and shows) customers how responsive brands are to customers – so be consistent, positive and acknowledge your customers on social much the same way you would if they were standing in your store, on the phone or buying from you online.

Responding, blocking and removing comments

Managing feedback on your social channels may seem daunting but much like responding to a customer in a storefront experience, it’s really about authenticity, clear communication and working to ensure the customer is happy. Regardless of whether your feedback is positive or negative, simply showing the customer they have been heard will create a powerful impact. In fact, social users said they were more likely to trust a brand that interacts with their customers in a positive way on social media.

How much to post

Consistency is important. You need to keep stoking the fires of your social channels or the flame will fade.

If you’re low on content, don’t be tempted to replace it with random items or bombard your audience with sales messages. Irrelevant, unappealing content and “too many ads” are all listed as key reasons for people to stop following brands on social media.

Consider what you have to draw from – likeminded brands you can forge relationships with and content share, ambassadors or hero customers who might be able to create and share content for you, colleagues who have great insights or a keen eye.

When it comes to volume, it’s important to remember that not everyone will see everything you post – even if you’re using advertising to promote it. News feeds are busy and people are not actually on their social channels constantly. Repost ‘evergreen’ content with a slight refresh and extend its value or create less content, but use targeting advertising to ensure it's getting in front of the right customers and making an impact.

"Acknowledge your customers on social much the same way you would if they were standing in your store, on the phone or buying from you online."

Key social media terms explained

1. What's a hashtag?

A hashtag is typically used across Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook. It essentially groups topics or ideas together and acts as a search filter. For example, if you type in #food, every food related post that someone has tagged using that label will come up. The more specific you get, the less volume there is, which can be handy if you’re running a competition where customers upload photos to Instagram and you want to find them.

If you want your brand to start becoming discoverable, use hashtags in your posts – particularly on Instagram and Twitter. While there are popular hashtags, there isn’t a pre-set list. You create a new one simply by adding the # symbol before a word or phrase. Use several to make your mark but stay specific and relevant to the conversation – don’t just tack hashtags on with wild abandon.

It’s basically another word for a username. It's typically the word/s you see after the @ symbol. Ideally, your company should have matching handles across all social channels so it’s easy for customers to find and contact you.

3. What's the Facebook pixel?

It’s an online ‘cookie’ that will track visitors to your website so you can advertise to them later via retargeting. If someone visits your page and has Facebook open, they will automatically fall into your pool and you can use Ad Manager in Facebook to send them relevant ads and editorial. There is a main Facebook pixel but also supporting conversion pixels. You can find more out about them here.

Your guide to the most common social platforms used for business

Eight in ten Australians use social media, which means it’s an ideal opportunity to connect with your customers. Social media will take up some of your (quite possibly) limited time but it’s well worth the outlay – and you don’t have to be everywhere at once. Actually, it’s better if you’re not. Instead, focus your energy and efforts on where and how you can create the biggest impact.

A recent survey indicated that Facebook remains the clearly dominant social platform, with 94% of social users having a profile. YouTube was next on 51%, then Instagram with 46%, Snapchat on 40%, Twitter at 32% and LinkedIn on 18%, with Pinterest rounding out on 10%.

94% of Australian social media users are on platform, making it far superior when it comes to size. The audience use the platform to connect with friends and family (and brands they love). People share photos, videos, articles and statues that create their own personal brand via storytelling.

Australian audience profile: 91% male and 97% female of social media users are on Facebook, with a fairly even representation across all age groups: Over 90% of all social users in every category from 18-65+ use Facebook.

Famous for its 140 character limit, this platform is ideal for the here and now and for news based messaging. Twitter saw a surge in use in Australia recently, with 32% of social media users listing it as a platform of choice.

Primarily a professional networking platform, companies typically use LinkedIn to recruit team members, share business news and success and to align with likeminded businesses. It’s also a knowledge sharing network, where relevant content can be surfaced and shared.

Ideal for: Recruiting, aligning with other businesses, getting intel on relevant market, building brand profile and professional presence.